I had the amazing opportunity to take a journey to the offices of IGN. Well it wasn't really a journey since I live 30 minutes outside of San Fransisco, but it was a trip. I was one of the lucky folks picked to go to a fabled first Friday event at the offices and give a tour so here is my story.

The lions den, or Heaven....more like Heaven

Me and a few friends were all picked to go, but for me it was a more professional experience being a game journalist. But I also allowed myself to have fun time because I love video games and I love coming to San Fransisco. We got to the IGN offices early, like an hour early and we weren't supposed to go in yet. So we decided that we should just walk around for an hour until we could go in. Me and Allen being big baseballs fans decided to head over to AT&T park and walk around. Being in AT&T park is cool but weird at the same time, being an A's fan I felt like I was in enemy territory but we did see a lady with an A's hat and we let her know we supported her commitment to excellence.

My best friend and I (I'm in the green jacket) looking out on the bay next to AT&T park

After walking around the stadium for awhile we still have time to kill, so we headed back to the IGN offices and waited outside for 30 minutes. We saw a few editors and staff leaving but we decided not to say hi, they looked busy and were in a hurry. While trying to enter the building we saw Greg Miller and some other staff leaving as well. This was the third time I've met Greg Miller so it was pretty cool, he also remembered all of us which is really flattering.

a wall....

Being inside is surreal, there is so much to look at and so much to see. We got to see the editors room, accounting, the engenieering department, the video department, and other places. The only place we didn't get to see was the library which is a little disappointing. I hear so much about it, and I am a sucker for giant game collections. I got to meet a bunch of people including Ryan Geddes (Managing Editor) and Chris Ostertag (Video Manager), who are nice people and very helpful. Over all I had a great time at IGN, it was like a dream come true and I hope someday down the line I get to work in an office as great as this. It was a great day.